Avalaunch, an internet based firm which specializes in online marketing, promotion, and optimization, has unveiled an updated version of its famous History Of Marketing Channels graphic. This is a timeline chart of the progress that mass media advertising has made over the past two centuries. The chart shows that techniques of mass advertising have evolved hand in hand with technological developments in communication. Starting with the newspaper, and ending (for the moment) with the internet and the Android phone, advertising has been an essential ingredient in the mix.

The chart begins in the year 1839, a time in which advertising posters were banned from being placed on private property in London. We can only imagine the nuisance felt by elite Victorians on waking up to find scurrilous notices for shaving cream and meat pies plastered up on their doors! Beyond these minor inconveniences, the fact that Londoners felt the need to enact such legislation shows that mass advertising was already well underway in the West. Keep in mind that this was the golden age of the newspaper. London's famous Fleet Street printing presses were already churning out thousands upon thousands of ads which were reaching the public in numbers that had never previously been possible.

The History Of Marketing Channels chart continues on past that era, all the way up to the present time. Along the way, such dates as 1864 stand out. Apparently, this was the date of the earliest recorded instance of unsolicited spam reaching the public by means of the telegraph! Another landmark date would be 1908, which saw the establishment of the Harvard Business School. This was, of course, the very first institution in the West which sought to distill the techniques of mass media advertising down to a practical science.

From there, the chart takes in all of the significant dates that have seen major new developments in advertising, from the invention of the telephone and the radio, down to television and the advent of the world wide web. The chart necessarily ends in 2012, but manages to pack in all of the amazing technological developments that this past decade has produced, from the Android right down to the I-pad.

They done an excellent job of reminding us just how far the techniques of mass media advertising have come. The chart is an excellent resource for those interested in this subject matter, and is highly recommended.